The former ET anchor is returning to the show stage on Thursday night to help kick off ET's 35th anniversary celebration.

In honor of her 29-year run as an anchor who helped define and revolutionize entertainment news 35 years ago, ET's Nancy O'Dell and Kevin Frazier surprised Mary with the first-ever ET Icon Award -- and we, of course, got it all on tape!

"For me, it was the movie stars I had grown up watching [that would make me star-struck]," she explains. "When I interviewed, the one and only time, I interviewed Lucille Ball in the early days of ET."

Another memorable moment was when she got to go on tour with Michael Jackson.

"[That experience] was extraordinary," she reveals. "I got to see in a way nobody else ever had, almost a magician at work. And he seemed to me, backstage, so nervous and so frail, and so quiet. I thought, 'how could he turn into Michael Jackson?'"

Later in the show, Nancy asks Mary what loyal ET viewers have probably been wondering -- "Are your legs still insured?" (Back in the '80s, Mary insured her legs for $1 million each).